[EN] Belgium-based, New York choreographer and dancer Daniel Linehan was Associated Artist at deSingel International Arts Campus (Antwerp) and New Wave Associate at Sadler’s Wells (London) from 2012 to 2014. From 2013 to 2016 he was artist-in-residence at the Opera de Lille. Linehan is Creative Associate at deSingel International Arts Campus 2017-2021. Since 2015, Hiatus is supported by the Flemish authorities. This is his first visit to the Grand Théâtre. Flood is a choreography of appearances and disappearances. When someone enters a space, there is an immediate sense of anticipation: what is this person going to do? When someone exits, suspense and curiosity also arise: where did that person go? When will they return? Through these simple actions, the performance reflects on appearance and disappearance as a dominant mode of experiencing the world today, at a time when accelerating technological development also means an accelerating loss of older techniques and beliefs, not to mention an accelerating deterioration in the natural environment.

In between the entrances and exits the dancers perform a series of movements that seem to repeat themselves, but in fact are in a constant state of transformation; older fragments of movement are lost and replaced by newer, updated versions of the same movement. Flood looks at the dominance of “high-speed” values, and wonders if it is really possible to interrupt this trend of acceleration by intentionally slowing down. In the midst of our throwaway society and the flood of new technologies and increasingly frequent product updates, Linehan questions the cultural dominance of the new. At the same time, he considers what is disappearing and what is becoming superfluous as our social behaviours and our surroundings transform at an ever-faster pace.